Senior Thesis Abstract (Di Paola)

The third molars, or the 'wisdom teeth' as they are known commonly, are a set
of teeth that develop and descend later in a human's life. Third molars are not
exclusive to present-day humans. They are found in almost all anatomically
modern humans, with some exceptions, including those from times well before any
form of dental care is known to have existed. This leads to the main question
addressed within this paper: What differences between ancient humans and modern
humans may have allowed ancient humans to readily accept the third molar into
their dentition, as compared to the issues faced by modern humans? The main
theory analyzed here will be the proposed idea that dental attrition in ancient
humans would have provided room to allow the third molar to grow in relatively
pain-free. In this project, I analyzed 50 skulls (a combination of maxilla and
mandibles) from a combination of the Tepe-Hissar Collection (representing an
'ancient' population), the Morton Collection, and a handful of others
(representing a 'modern' population), measuring values of length, width, tooth
spacing, toot diameter, attrition, and presence of third molars. Through this
comparative study, it was determined that there is strong evidence for higher
attrition in the Tepe-Hissar skulls, and a far lower percentage of
complications involving third molars in skulls that had third molars in
Tepe-Hissar, 32.14%, then in the Morton, 57.14%, or the others, 75%. This shows
that there may indeed be an inverse relation with dental attrition and third
molar-related incidents.